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Another of the postwar education department newsletters in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea was Lae Garamut. It published mainly announcements and instructions from local colonial officials in Pidgin, but like Rabaul News and others, aspired to be a newspaper for indigenous people, and invited readers to submit their own articles. In 1948, the editors published an item which they said “came straight from the Salamaua people,” advertising (if you will) the prices of clay pots that they produced for trade. It is in fact a bit more than that. It describes specific rates of exchange between pandanus nuts and clay pots, denominated in money. It also announces that some pots now can only be bought with money. In language that will be familiar to readers of Harding’s Voyagers of the Vitiaz Straits (1967), it goes on to describe the difficult “work of pots” to justify these terms, and pledges the makers’ continued support for their trade partners. Below is a transcript, including a preface by the paper’s editors. The translation is my own and is no doubt imperfect, and may be incorrect. I welcome any corrections or suggestions for improvement.

Pei bilong sosopen

Transcribed by Ryan Schram, July 23, 2016

Source: Lae Garamut, vol. 2, no. 23, p. 4 (28 August 1948). Held at the National Library of Australia.

Note: Text is split into phrases based on punctuation but otherwise as it appears on the page. Text in square brackets followed by a question mark indicates conjecture.